


Hardly A Temptation

by giselleslash



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 09:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1423615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giselleslash/pseuds/giselleslash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elena has sworn off men but she’s in desperate need of a flatmate. She only agrees to let Arthur move in because he’s gay, in a relationship, and clearly off-limits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hardly A Temptation

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this [prompt](http://untold-legends.livejournal.com/2036.html?thread=100596#t100596).

Elena was swearing off men. Forever.

Well, maybe not forever, but certainly indefinitely.

She was indefinitely swearing off men.

They were all giant knobs who didn’t deserve the time of day. And she was definitely sticking to that belief.

Definitely. 

Her life was going to be a dick-free zone. 

Of course it didn’t help matters that she was in desperate need of a flatmate and the only person who replied to her advertisement and seemed unlikely to have a collection of human hair, or the desire to murder her in her sleep, appeared to be in the form of a man who was most likely in possession of a dick.

But Elena wasn’t going to let that deter her from her resolution, it was only that desperate times called for desperate measures, and her co-worker, Freya, assured her that the dick in question was an okay bloke. 

She was keeping her fingers crossed.

 

~*~

 

Elena looked through the peephole in her door and saw two men standing outside in the hallway.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Um, we’re here to look at the room, and the flat,” the blond one said. “I’m Arthur, I called earlier?”

“Arthur, of course!” Elena called out as she opened the door. “I totally lost track of time, and I was like, I didn’t order take-away, did I? I mean it’s entirely possible I did, I have done in the past. I’ll just be going about my business and the bell will ring and there’ll be some guy with food and me completely unaware I made a call at all.”

“Hunger dialling,” the dark-haired one said with a knowing nod. “Like drunk dialling. Makes total sense.”

“Only to you,” Arthur said.

“Only to everyone,” he said back to Arthur.

“Shut-up, Merlin, you’re not making a very good first impression.”

“Why does it matter if I make a good impression, you’re the one renting the room.”

Arthur just gave Merlin a look, but he laughed and Elena grinned at the both of them.

“Well, I’m Elena,” she said as she held out her hand to Arthur.

“Arthur,” Arthur said as he shook her hand. “And that one there is Merlin.”

“His long-suffering life partner,” Merlin said as he enthusiastically shook Elena’s hand.

“Merlin, honestly,” Arthur sighed. 

“Life partner? Oh. _Oh_ ,” Elena said.

“Yeah, ten years and counting,” Merlin said as he tugged on Arthur’s arm. “And they said we’d never make it.”

“Shut-up, Merlin.”

Elena watched as Arthur pulled his arm out of Merlin’s grip as Merlin laughed at him. Rather strange behavior for a couple that had been together ten years, but Elena wasn’t one to judge. Maybe Arthur just wasn’t into PDA’s, God knows her last boyfriend hadn’t been either.

“Well,” Elena said. “If you want to see the room…?”

“Yes, please,” Arthur said. 

Elena led them down the short hall to the two bedrooms that occupied the flat. “So, you two don’t live together?” she asked as she looked back over her shoulder at Merlin and Arthur.

“Christ no,” Arthur said at the same time Merlin said, “He snores. Invest in some earplugs.”

“Oh. Okay?” Elena tried not to sound confused. She was going to stick to her no judging stance. Every couple was different, living separately was clearly their thing.

“We lived together at uni, that was enough to cure me of any desire to live together in the future,” Arthur said.

“And yet our love endures,” Merlin said cheerfully. 

Before Elena could say anything to that Arthur said, “Never mind him, it’s his life’s mission to make himself look like a total tit.”

Elena just stared at the both of them and opened up the door to what would be Arthur’s room, if he decided to take it.

“This is nice,” Arthur said as he walked in and started poking around. 

“It gets a lot of morning sun,” Elena said. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

“It’s good,” Merlin said. “He’s one of those insufferable morning people. Not natural, if you ask me.”

“No one did,” Arthur said off-handedly as he looked through the window.

“We’d have to share a bathroom, there’s only the one unfortunately. I hope that’s not a problem either.”

“Once you’ve had to share a bathroom with Merlin and come out of the ordeal mentally and physically unscathed anything is bliss.”

Elena expected a comeback from Merlin but when she looked at him he only shrugged and gave her a look that implied Arthur wasn’t lying, and that Merlin didn’t feel at all guilty about it either. Elena grinned at him.

“The kitchen has all new appliances,” she said as she led them back down the hall. “And if I’m being honest I don’t know how to work any of them. I’m complete rubbish in the kitchen so you’ll basically have that to yourself, I just hope you don’t mind that my half of the fridge will be packed with a variety of questionable take-away containers.”

Arthur shrugged and looked unphased. “Once again my answer to that is, I lived with Merlin,” he said. 

“So I’ll be bliss?” Elena asked.

Arthur smiled at her. “Complete bliss.”

Elena could feel herself blushing, Arthur was stupidly attractive and about ten times more so when he smiled. Thank fuck he was gay as a daisy, and very comfortably attached to Merlin, so her vow to swear off men could happily stay intact. 

Not that Arthur would’ve been interested in her, or would’ve been an option, if he weren’t gay, but whatever, temptation averted. She could simply enjoy the view and have a safe little crush, if Arthur ended up being crush-worthy. Besides, he could quite possibly pick his toes or collect porcelain cat figurines and then it wouldn’t even be a problem at all.

“So, what do you think?” Elena asked.

“He’ll take it,” Merlin answered before Arthur could even open his mouth. “He’s been staying at mine and let’s just say our love won’t survive another week of it.”

“Jesus, Merlin, will you stop?” Arthur said. “You’re going to ruin it for me and I won’t get this place, then I actually will murder you in your sleep.”

“I don’t even know how to react to any part of what either one of you said, but the room is still yours if you want it. I’m rather desperate. I can’t afford another month’s rent on my own,” Elena said.

“Perfect,” Merlin said. “We’re desperate too. A match made in flatmate heaven. Arthur, sign whatever she needs you to sign, even if it’s signing away your soul to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

“Merlin, go wait in the car. You’re utterly useless,” Arthur said as he gave Merlin a shove in the general direction of the door.

Merlin stumbled a bit after Arthur’s shove but righted himself to reach out to grab Elena’s hand. “It was lovely meeting you, Elena. I’m not going to say you’ll regret this day in the very near future because I don’t want to frighten you into not letting him take the room, even though you will regret it, but by then you’ll be contractually obligated to put up with him.”

Elena looked at Merlin in confusion for a bit but he was smiling brightly at her as he left so she decided he was just joking. He had to be, right? Yes, certainly he was joking. 

“He’s joking,” Arthur said, as if reading her mind. “He thinks he’s funny. He’s not.”

“Okaaay.” Elena tried for a grin but must have failed horribly because Arthur laughed at her.

“You’ll get used to it, honestly. He’s an idiot, but a sweet one. No need to worry about his mental stability, or my own for that matter either.” Arthur seemed to realize what he was saying and sort of stuttered out a, “I’m not mental, really. I’m perfectly sane. I’m a sane person.”

Elena couldn’t help it, she laughed when his face started turning an adorable shade of pink. “But really, Arthur, are any of us actually sane?”

Arthur smiled at her. “Well, no, probably not.”

“So, then, ever so slightly mental and not entirely sane it is,” Elena said agreeably. “When can you move in?”

 

~*~

 

Arthur and Elena settled into a comfortable routine. Elena was thankful for it, she’d been more than a little worried at the beginning but Arthur had turned out to be almost unbelievably polite and quiet. A perfect flatmate, actually, and if Elena let her inner-worrier take over she’d think it was too good to be true. But she decided to ignore that nagging little voice and just be happy that they were getting along so well.

Arthur shared with her early on why he needed a flatmate in the first place. Elena had recognized his last name and gave him a questioning look when he’d signed the lease. Pendragon was a name that was hard to ignore, or be oblivious to. When Arthur told her he’d left his father’s company to work with his brother-in-law to start up the restaurant they’d always dreamed about opening Elena’s growing fondness for him only increased. 

She admired him for doing his own thing, and for pursuing his dreams. Elena had always found it incredibly difficult to go against her own father’s wishes, to branch out from the life he had planned for her. And she never wanted to admit whenever her father might possibly have been right all along. He’d been right about what a wanker her ex Michael was, but Elena had been too stubborn to admit it and it had gotten her into the mess that had led her to Arthur. 

Michael wasn’t a nice guy, sure he started out with the facade of niceness, but it didn’t last and only Elena’s stubbornness made her stay with him longer than she should have. They were moved in together before she could properly consider things, and they were broken up almost as quickly. There she was with a flat she couldn’t afford, a bruised ego, and a healthy case of men-are-bastards-and-I’d-rather-die-alone-with-my-cats.

Thank God she’d listened to Freya though and had given Arthur her address despite his man-ness and penis-having. She was also quite proud of the fact that she had managed not to glower at him and curse said penis to his face when he’d come to look at the flat. 

But Arthur’s penis belonged to Merlin so he was the one who had to deal with it and Elena could happily ignore it.

Well, except for that one time she walked in on him as he was getting out of the shower and there was wetness and skin and other, things, and lots of stuttering between the two of them. She couldn’t exactly ignore it then, but they both agreed to a case of mutual amnesia over the incident and it never came up again.

But Merlin really was a lucky lad.

 

~*~

 

“No date tonight?” Arthur asked as he dropped his things down on the chair next to the couch.

“Or any night if I’m lucky,” Elena answered. 

“Spoken like someone recently fucked by love.”

“You have no idea.”

“Do I want to know?” Arthur asked.

“Probably not, it’s a boring story anyway.”

“Well how about some food then? I feel food is always the answer.”

Elena laughed. “I have a feeling I’ll weigh twenty stone by the time you’ve moved out.”

“I’ve only just moved in and you’re already planning my exit. I’m wounded.”

“Well, you don’t complain when I tell you it’s your turn to clean the toilet so I’ll probably keep you.”

Arthur grinned at her and went to grab the collection of take-away menus that were shoved in one of their kitchen drawers. “You’ll find I’m an excellent dishwasher as well,” he called out from the kitchen. “If we ever used actual dishes that is.”

“It’ll be a sad sad day when there’s actual cooking done in this flat,” Elena said. 

Arthur tossed the menus onto the couch next to Elena and sat down on the other side of them. 

“Thank God we agree on that,” he said.

 

~*~

 

“The fact that you question my love for David Tennant really lessens my opinion of you, you know,” Elena said as she shoveled another forkful of pad thai into her mouth. 

“I don’t question your love, I question your belief that he’s sexy. David Tennant isn’t sexy,” Arthur said.

They were slouched down together on the couch mainlining Broadchurch and trying to empty their refrigerator of all the take-away containers that were shoved inside it. 

“Arthur, God. I’m embarrassed for you right now.”

Arthur shrugged and reached for one of the boxes spread across the table in front of them. “I’m fine with that,” he said as he sniffed at the box. “What’s in this one?”

“Mystery box!” Elena shouted.

Arthur grinned and opened it up. “Puttanesca.”

“When did we order puttanesca? Are there green things growing on it?” Elena leaned against Arthur’s side and peered down into the box.

“I brought it home from the restaurant on Wednesday. Leon’s trying new recipes.”

“Ah, good, it’s safe then,” Elena said as she stuck her fork into the box.

“Hey, this is my mystery box. Get your own.”

“I let you eat my curry.”

“Yeah, after you said, ‘Oh my God, Arthur, eat this curry. I’ll vom if I eat any more of it.’” Arthur laughed. “Such a sacrifice.”

Elena gave Arthur her best innocent look then settled in against his side, her head on his shoulder, when he handed over the puttanesca with a sigh. He really was all lovely and warm and comfortable. 

Even if he had crap taste in men.

 

~*~

 

“Would you rather have an alien invasion or a zombie apocalypse?” Elena asked.

“Alien invasion,” Arthur answered.

“Nope, wrong answer. Everyone knows the correct answer is zombie apocalypse.”

“How does everyone know that? When was that decided upon?”

“Daryl Dixon decided it,” Elena said as she pushed at Arthur’s foot. She was lying on the floor and Arthur was sitting on the couch. Somehow, when she’d tried to kick Arthur a few minutes before, he’d blocked her kick with his foot and now they had the bottoms of their feet pressed together and were half-heartedly pushing each other’s leg back and forth.

“You watch The Walking Dead too much. Daryl Dixon isn’t real.”

“He is in my world,” Elena said. “Which is a zombie infested world where he is my knight in dingy leather.”

“Your fantasies are troubling.” 

Elena snorted and Arthur pushed her foot out of the way so he could grin down out at her. God, she loved his grin. It made his entire face become a big, fat beaming ray of light.

Or something like that.

“Okay, so, would rather have mermaids be real or unicorns?” Arthur asked.

“Oh my God, stupid question, they’re both real. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Arthur agreed. “Just seeing if you’re paying attention.”

“Fuck, who’d want to live in a world without unicorns?” Elena asked.

“Merlin would have no way to get to work.”

“Merlin rides a unicorn to work? How cute.”

Arthur nodded. “He named it Bernard.”

“Ah, lovely.”

Elena smiled when Arthur winked at her. She loved it when they were on the same crazy brainwave. 

“Okay, new one,” Arthur said as he pushed at her foot. “Would you rather be a miserable genius or a happy moron?”

Elena sighed. “I’m already a miserable genius. It’s a hard life I’m living.”

Arthur laughed. “Does that make me the happy moron?”

Elena cocked her head and gave Arthur a solemn look.

“Possibly.”

She screamed with laughter when Arthur kicked her foot away and threw himself on top of her to try to tickle a different answer out of her.

 

~*~

 

Elena closed the sport pages and handed them over to Arthur. She kind of loved him just a little bit simply because he let her at the Sunday paper first, more importantly the sport pages. 

A true friend let you have the sport pages first. 

An even truer friend then argued with you over the opinions in said sport pages once you were both done reading it. 

Arthur did both.

“Page three article,” Elena said when Arthur opened it up.

“Oh, really?”

“You’ll know what I mean.”

“Can’t wait.”

Elena grinned and got up to get them both more coffee. She might be a complete disaster in the kitchen but she made killer coffee, even Arthur agreed. And he was a bit of a coffee snob, one of his few flaws in Elena’s opinion. But it was understandable, he’d had Leon, a proper professional, feeding him and making him coffee since uni so she guessed she couldn’t blame him.

She’d laughed when she first found out he was just as hopeless as she was in the kitchen. She’d nearly shouted, ‘But you own a restaurant!’ at him, which made Arthur shout back, ‘I’m the manager, not the chef, how am I supposed to know how to cook?’ 

She ran an affectionate hand through Arthur’s tousled bedhead as she set his coffee down in front of him. She was always affectionate and touchy-feely with her friends and Arthur never seemed to mind all the hugs and touches she threw at him. She’d been surprised by how easily, and quickly, she felt comfortable with him. She’d always made friends easily, but Arthur was different, there was a sort of instant connection between the two of them and he was only growing more dear to her the longer he lived with her.

Almost _too_ dear.

She was thankful every time Merlin came over to remind her that Arthur was decidedly off-limits. She was resolved anew after every visit to set her silly little crush aside and be happy with Arthur’s friendship, which was more important than anything. Sometimes, though, Merlin and Arthur were so ridiculously unaffectionate that she almost wanted to shout at them to kiss or hug or do _something_ that would help remind her once again that her heart, and her panties, should just say no to Arthur. 

Some days her panties had real problems with the notion, especially when Arthur went about without his shirt on, which, really, wasn’t playing fairly at all. 

 

~*~

 

Arthur had taken to staying home on the weekends, spending the time vegged out with Elena in front of the telly or entrenched in a great battle to see who could find the most ridiculous video on youtube. Much to Elena’s dismay Arthur had some sort of youtube voodoo going on and always won. She accused Arthur of cheating by getting Merlin to send him links but Arthur said geniuses didn’t need to cheat. 

Elena tried not to question Arthur about all the time he was spending with her and not with Merlin. She told herself it wasn’t her business, but that was only an excuse, the truth of the matter was she loved spending time with Arthur. And the longer Arthur lived with her the more of a problem it became. His kindness and warmth were breaking her down bit by bit. 

His stupidly perfect face and body weren’t helping matters either. In fact, Elena kind of wished they were the only things she found appealing about Arthur, at least then it could be laughed off as a superficial crush. But every time Arthur had a mug of tea waiting for her in the morning before work, or stuck a ridiculous film in her Netflix queue, or said something unintentionally hilarious (because Arthur really was accidentally funny ninety-nine percent of the time) she fell more and more in like with him. She feared that ‘in like’ was dangerously close to becoming ‘in love.’

As she was finding out every day, Arthur was terribly easy to love.

 

~*~

 

Finally one Saturday night Merlin came over and Elena thought she’d be able to breathe easier with him there to offset the intimacy she felt when it was just her and Arthur. 

But he wasn’t exactly doing his job.

Yeah he was occupying much of Arthur’s attention, but that only made Elena crave it more. He was also draped all over Arthur on the couch, and really, Elena didn’t need to see that. (Well, okay, maybe he was sitting at the opposite end of the couch, but he had his feet in Arthur’s lap and that counted, right?) And all of his inside jokes with Arthur seemed to trump her own inside jokes with Arthur because they’d been there longer. Those stupid inside jokes being all hilarious and making Arthur laugh in that way of his where he threw back his head and actually guffawed. Elena had never known anyone who guffawed, or made her think of guffawing, but Arthur definitely guffawed. And he was definitely adorable doing it.

The twat.

Elena sat in the chair opposite the couch and stewed in her own annoyance and irritation. From time to time she gripped the arms of the chair to keep herself from jumping out of it at Merlin to push him away from Arthur. Like Arthur was her favorite toy, and she was three and didn’t like to share. 

And the thing was, she _liked_ Merlin, she liked him a lot. He was a great laugh and an amazing person, and really, if anyone deserved to be with Arthur it was Merlin, but Elena just couldn’t get her heart to agree with that sentiment. 

_She_ wanted to be the one to deserve Arthur. 

To have someone so unbearably lovely to laugh with her and be her best mate and to hold her in the night because he couldn’t stand the thought of not touching her. She wanted Arthur to look at her, just look at her, and smile, smile so fondly that there wasn’t any doubt he thought she was the most wonderful person he’d ever hope to know. 

It was idiotically romantic, and an entirely unrealistic expectation, but Elena had never had anything even close to it in any relationship she’d ever been in, she thought she was due.

Of fucking course her luck sent her the man of her dreams in the form of one who just happened to like it up the bum, and had a very willing and able boyfriend equipped with a cock to give it to him. 

Merlin must have felt Elena’s glare burning into the side of his head because he turned to her and started talking. She was so deep into her bout of maudlin pouting she didn’t hear what he’d said at first.

“What?” she asked stupidly when she finally realized he was talking to her and not Arthur.

“Did Arthur ask you?” Merlin repeated.

“Did Arthur ask me what?”

“If you wanted to come to Mithian’s welcome home party.”

“What? I don’t even know Mithian, why would I be invited?”

“Because Arthur wants you to come.”

“Merlin, shut it,” Arthur said. 

“What?” Merlin asked. When Arthur didn’t respond he sighed. “Mate, you’ve got to do something, it’s been three months, things are getting pathetic at this point.”

“What’s getting pathetic?” Elena asked.

“Merlin, I said shut it.”

Elena noticed Arthur was turning decidedly red, and decidedly uncomfortable. Merlin, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care one bit about Arthur’s apparent distress.

“Arthur would like you to come,” Merlin said, nearly speaking over Arthur’s voice. “That’s why you’re invited. If it were up to Arthur you’d be invited everywhere. If it were up to me he’d grow a pair and tell you that himself, but apparently it’s my night to shine.”

“Arthur wants to invite me everywhere?” Elena asked.

“He does.”

“And I’m invited to Mithian’s party?”

“Mith’s _welcome home_ party, that’s the important bit. The maddening creature has been gone for nearly four months and I miss her.”

“Merlin’s utterly pathetic without her,” Arthur said. “He mopes around like a Victorian. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some of her hair in a locket.”

“Oh no, don’t try to divert attention,” Merlin said. “My patheticness isn’t the issue here.”

“But you don’t deny you’re pathetic,” Arthur said.

“Of course I don’t. I’m a ridiculous man-child without her, we’ve settled this a dozen times over, what we’re dealing with now is your pathetic situation.”

“I haven’t got a pathetic situation.”

“You’ve been mooning over your flatmate like a lovesick cow for the past three months, yeah, I’d say that qualifies as a pathetic situation,” Merlin said.

Elena had been watching Merlin and Arthur go back and forth and was getting more and more confused by the minute. 

“Wait a minute,” she interrupted them. “Who’s Mithian? And why is Merlin a pathetic man-child without her?”

“Mithian’s my girlfriend,” Merlin said. “She up and faffed off to South America to build wells and schools and other useful things for four months leaving me here all alone, which was quite selfish of her if you ask me because I’m a horrible human being without her and I should be her humanitarian work. You know what they say about it starting at home and all of that.”

“This is one time I actually agree with Merlin,” Arthur said. “She leaves me to deal with him and that’s just poor planning on her part.”

Elena had been shocked speechless by the first sentence out of Merlin’s mouth...girlfriend? And now she was sitting in her chair like a lump with her mouth hanging open. 

“Well you’re not exactly a treat either,” Merlin said. “What do I know about your girlish woes? Mithian deals with that, I can’t handle you when you’re a moping little twat.”

“Girlfriend?” Elena managed to choke out. 

“I know, it’s unbelievable, right?” Arthur said. “It’s especially unbelievable when you meet and get to know Mithian. It boggles the mind, actually.”

“I know, she was lucky to snag me,” Merlin said as he gave Arthur a solid shove to the outside of his thigh. 

“Ow, dammit, Merlin. You’re not five years old.”

Elena stood up and waved her hand between the two of them. “But what about you two?”

“Us two?” Arthur asked.

“Yes, you two.”

“What about us?”

“How can Merlin have a girlfriend?”

“I ask myself that same question every day,” Arthur answered.

Elena scowled. “Stop being cute, you know what I mean.”

“I honestly don’t. I mean I know I give Merlin a bit of go most of the time, but they actually are a lovely couple. I’m not sure why he can’t have a girlfriend.”

“Because the two of you are together,” Elena nearly shouted at them.

“Together?” Arthur said the word like it was the most horrid thing to ever come out of his mouth, Merlin just started laughing rather loudly. “We’re not together.”

“But when you came to look at the flat you said you were.” Elena pointed an accusing finger at Merlin. “You said it.”

“I said no such thing.”

“You did,” Elena insisted. “You said you were his life partner.”

“Oh my God,” Arthur said as he ran his hands over his face before giving Merlin a good slap with the back of his hand. “You utter pillock, I told you people would take you seriously if you said shite like that.”

“No one ever takes me seriously,” Merlin protested.

“Elena didn’t know you back then, of course she took you seriously. She wasn’t aware you’re a complete tit.”

“Aw, fuck.” Merlin looked genuinely abashed. “I’m sorry, Elena, I had no idea. I always do stuff like that to take a piss at Arthur cause he’s so easy to rile. It’s just that usually people know I’m doing it. I really am sorry.”

“But that was the whole reason I said you could have the room.” Elena could feel herself growing hot with embarrassment and anger. She felt like she’d been duped, and been made a horrible fool of. 

“What do you mean?” Arthur asked.

“I swore off men!” Elena shouted. “And you’re one. You’re a man.”

“I’ve always been, yeah,” Arthur said.

“But I swore you off, you and your dick. I wasn’t even going to let you see the flat because of your dick and all, but Freya swore on her life you’d be perfect and then you were gay too so I figured why not? You were supposed to be gay!” Elena knew shouting like a crazy person wasn’t making her exactly coherent, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “I thought you’d be safe.”

“Christ. Fuck. I’m so sorry,” Arthur said. “I really am, I had no idea.”

“It was supposed to be easy,” Elena said. “You were gay and we could just be good mates, really good mates, and I could crush on you all I wanted because I wasn’t your type and there wasn’t a chance that anything could happen. But then you started being all you, and stuff, and I really like you. And your face. And all the rest of it. But you were gay.”

Elena wasn’t making any sense at all, she knew that much, Arthur was just sitting there looking absolutely floored and Merlin looked like he could just about shrivel up and die. 

Fucking bollocking fuck.

“I gotta go,” Elena said as she headed for the door. “I have to get out of here for a bit.”

Arthur finally stood up and followed her to the door.

“El, don’t go.”

She grabbed her keys. “Just let me go, Arthur. Just. I’ve got to go.”

She slammed the door behind her feeling like the biggest fucking idiot on Earth. 

 

~*~

 

She ended up walking for a couple of hours, just sort of wandering around the neighborhood and thinking about what a fool she’d made of herself. She started out cursing Merlin’s stupid joke and Arthur’s apparent inability to read her mind, but after an hour or so she began to see the situation for what it was.

A really stupid misunderstanding, and nothing more.

There had never been any malicious intent behind it--Arthur had never lied to her, never claimed to be anything other than what he was--he didn’t intentionally hurt her. Her real problem was the fact that she was flat out fucking scared. 

She was terrified.

Arthur was a possibility now, a very real one. If what Merlin had said was true he was very clearly indicating Arthur liked her. 

_’If it were up to Arthur you’d be invited everywhere.’_

Elena smiled to herself. It was such a dumb thing to find so incredibly sweet, but she did. Arthur wanted to invite her everywhere, what could be more wonderful than that?

But her resolution. She’d promised herself she’d stay away from men; and all of their stupidity and stunted emotions and complete lack of empathy and kindness and caring. But the thing was, Arthur wasn’t like that. He wasn’t like the others. He was her mate, and he was kind and caring--and at the end of the day--really fucking brilliant.

Plus, she was in love with him.

Really really stupidly, arse over tits, in love with him.

And yeah, she was terrified, but she was also sort of euphorically excited about it too, about the fact they could maybe be ‘Arthur and Elena.’

When she headed back home, thoughts racing through her mind about what she’d say to Arthur, she found a note stuck to the door of her flat.

 

> I’m so so incredibly fucking sorry, Ellie. Please forgive me if you can, and if you can’t that’s fine, but don’t blame Arthur. It was my stupid mouth that caused all of this. I don’t want you to hate him because of me, and as much as it pains me to say it, he’s a fucking good bloke. Like really really good. Ridiculously good. And he likes you, an embarrassing amount actually. Just think about how you could lord that over his head, it would bring you great joy and many hours of entertainment, trust me on this. Plus you make him happy, and I like to see him happy. He’d be good to you, Ellie. And I think he’d make you happy too.
> 
> -Merlin
> 
> Also, he doesn’t know I’m out here writing this because he’s inside moping and regretting his poor life decisions (i.e. choosing me to be his best mate) so if you could just burn this, or eat it, I dunno, whatever, just don’t let him know I actually fucking care. 

 

Elena grinned and shoved the note into her pocket. She definitely wasn’t going to get rid of it, that was blackmail fodder if she’d ever seen it. 

When she walked into the flat she saw Arthur sitting at the kitchen table looking just as forlorn as Merlin had said. She felt a momentary pang for him but the fact that he was so worried made her smile just a little bit, made her happier than she’d been all evening, actually, because it filled her with hope. 

“Arthur,” she said quietly. 

He looked up at the sound of her voice and his face was so perfect in that moment that Elena could have run across the room and kissed him. 

“El, can we talk?” he asked as he stood up.

“Of course we can. I need to apologize for running out on you.”

“You really don’t, it was totally understandable. We gave you a proper shock and I’m so sorry about that.”

“Don’t,” Elena said as she held up her hand. “Don’t apologize again, there’s no need. Yeah, I was shocked, but it wasn’t your fault. I felt more stupid than anything else.”

“I’d never want you to feel that way,” Arthur said. “And I know Merlin wouldn’t either, he’s just a bit of an idiot and says stupid shite all the time. Usually we know not to listen to a word he says, but you had no idea.”

Elena laughed quietly when Arthur mentioned Merlin. 

“It really was just a stupid misunderstanding,” Elena said. “And you didn’t do anything wrong, Arthur. I just assumed, I never asked. Not that it’s something I should’ve asked, but you know. I mean people don’t generally go around asking how the bummings are going. Well, maybe some do, but I don’t, just so you know.”

Elena knew she was rambling and Arthur had started laughing when she mentioned bummings so all she could do was stop talking and shrug as she smiled at him.

“It’s honestly not my business how the bummings are going.” She laughed. 

“Well,” Arthur said. “If there were any bummings to talk about I’d be more than willing to tell you all about it.”

“You would?”

“Absolutely. In fact, there are a lot of things I think I’d like to share with you.”

Elena walked over to Arthur and twisted her fingers in his t-shirt to pull him closer. “I think I’d like to do the same.”

“How about I start with the fact that Merlin is an awful boyfriend and a really shite kisser and I’d much rather be kissing you.”

Elena could feel a really embarrassingly goofy grin spreading across her face.

“I think that’s a bloody fantastic start,” she said as she raised up on her toes and kissed Arthur.

Elena had to tighten her grip on Arthur’s shirt to keep herself upright when Arthur returned the kiss. When his arms wrapped around her she let herself sink into him. There was no hesitation, no second-guessing her choice. She knew Arthur was exactly what she needed, and wanted, and there wasn’t a single thing she could possibly regret.

A puff of laughter fluttered across Elena’s face when their lips parted and Arthur rested his forehead against hers.

“Definitely a better kisser than Merlin,” he said.

“I better be.” Elena laughed quietly. “But I think I want to hear about all this kissing you did with Merlin.”

“You really don’t, trust me. It involves a lot of alcohol and Merlin shouting at me that he rocked my world before burping and passing out. It wasn’t pretty.”

“That’s a shame, I was hoping it’d be a much sexier story.”

“Well,” Arthur said. “I could tell you about the time I made out with my mate Gwaine after footie practice. There was no alcohol involved that time, just curiosity and Gwaine’s tendency to never wear his shirt while playing football.”

Elena grinned. “That has the makings of a much better story. I guess you can stay.”

Arthur looked at her then, his face serious and tender all at once, and Elena’s heart pounded in her chest. 

“Good,” Arthur said. “Because the last thing I wanted to do was leave you.”

Elena kissed Arthur and hoped he knew she felt the same.

 

~End


End file.
